


never yet been wrong

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: some stupid noble reason [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Immortality, Mind Manipulation, Moral Ambiguity, Omnipotence, The Sorting Hat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 15:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13461264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: There is an all-powerful character in Harry Potter, and it isn’t Dumbledore. It isn’t Voldemort, and it isn’t Harry Potter.





	never yet been wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Sorting Hat's song in Harry Potter.

There is an all-powerful character in Harry Potter, and it isn’t Dumbledore. It isn’t Voldemort, and it isn’t Harry Potter.

 

Y’know, there are so many stories about the Sorting Hat being charmed into giving Harry Gryffindor, into sorting people wrong. This is an entity that can see the _entirety_ of one’s past, one’s personality, one’s potential.

The Sorting Hat sees _everything._ It sees the abused children, loved children, and neglected children. It sees future leaders and followers, sees everything that these children could be, if they are only given the right materials. It sees what snags will cause them to turn right or left, what turning points will turn scholar into Dark Lord, hero into coward.

Do you really think that a simple charm could affect a Hat that sees all, _knows_ all?

 

It gives children not what would make them great, but what they want most. It gives them desires, whether borne of accidents and war or peace and love.

The matters of the mortal world mean nothing to a Hat that has seen a millenia. Dark and Light magic alike mean nothing to a Hat that has survived the rise and fall of empire upon empire, sitting in a cupboard in the Headmaster’s office.

 

Little children beg the Hat to fit in, to give them power against their relatives, to be underestimated, to let them seek knowledge and nothing more. Their heads are filled with princesses and heroes and dragons.

Some of them will become dragons. Some of them will fade away.

The Hat gives them what they ask for.

 

The Hat sees all, and it gives these children a choice that they don’t realize will shape their entire, insignificant lives.

 _Slytherin,_ a boy from Avalon says, bitterness behind his eyes and a craving for greatness in his gut.

 _Hufflepuff,_ a girl with healing in her heart asks for, wanting to be underestimated and forgotten.

 _Gryffindor,_ a boy with Avada Kedavra eyes says. The Hat knows that he will become great in Slytherin, that the house will teach him how to use his gifts and give him choice, but it gives the boy what he wants. He goes into a house that will only allow him to be one type of hero.

 _Ravenclaw_ , says the girl who seeks knowledge for knowledge’s sake, who wants to learn regardless of consequence. It gives her this without remorse.

 

The Hat is all-powerful. It controls the fate of Britain by the suggestions it gives these schoolchildren, the paths it pushes them onto. It can manipulate the fate of the entire world with just a word into the minds of one of these children, the fulfillment of their desires.

And people think it can be spelled to their bidding.

_Please._


End file.
